Aang's last battles
by happybunny6524
Summary: The Gaang has all aged one more year and Iroh has joined to teach Aang firebending. He has mastered it and these are his last battles before facing Ozai. Some Kataang and Sukka. It may continue on after the battle with Ozai. I'm not sure yet.
1. The Battle with Toph

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, Nickelodeon does, and if i did, there would be a kataang relationship by now!

A/N: Aang is 13 now, Katara is 15, Sokka is 16, Toph is 13

Aang sat on Appa eating a nut that Sokka had gotten the night before. Toph was busy in her little earth tent with her crucial relaxation. Katara sat staring into the fire they had built earlier that morning.

Sokka was, of course, still sleeping. With nothing more to do than eat nuts or sleep, Aang just sat eating nuts that tasted like crap. Katara looked up at him with questioning eyes. Aang figured it was because of his upcoming battle with Oazi. He'd already mastered firebending with the help of Iroh. Agni only knows what became of Zuko.

But all thoughts aside, Katara's look was one of worry and question.

"What is it?" he asked. "Nothing." She answered. **_Stupid girl, _**Aang thought, **_I know you better than that._**

"Now, Katara, I am 13, not stupid. I have known you for a year and I know better than to let those looks go unnoticed." Wow. That came out really wrong.

She blushed a little, thinking the exact same thing, "Oh alright, its just," She sighed, "What will happen if you don't succeed in facing the Fire Lord?" She looked down with hot tears in her eyes.

"I don't know. It depends on whether or not I am in the avatar-state. But I will not fail anyway. That's because I have you and Sokka by my side."

"That's what scares me also. What if you do succeed? What will become of Sokka and I?"

Aang airbended down to her. His feet lightly touched the ground and she stood up to hug him tightly. Hot tears streamed down his neck. He whispered to her.

"I will never leave you. I would do anything in my power to make you happy. If the time comes that you want me to go, I don't know if I'd go or have to stay with you until you punch me in the eye," She let out a soft giggle, "But until then, I will always be by your side."

"Aang, I don't know what to say," She said amongst tears, "but thank you so much."

"Katara, there's something I've been wanting to tell you. The truth is that I—

"Get over here Twinkle-Toes! Time for some earthbending!" Toph yelled from inside her earth tent.

Aang gave Katara the 'Grrr. I guess I'll tell you later' look. He trudged over to Toph, who was getting out of her tent. She pointed toward a piece of earth and he walked toward it. Katara watched from the sidelines.

"Okay, Twinkle-Toes. I want you to block whatever I throw at you, counter-strike anything that you can, try to attack using only advanced moves, and try to avoid my surprise. If you cannot avoid it, you must earthbend your way out of it. And no airbending. I want you to fight only using earthbending."

Aang nodded his understanding. Toph stood for a moment, sensing his vibrations and stance. She lifted a boulder the size of Appa, and lifted it over Aang's head. At first, he thought she was going to drop it, but, he focused his energy in that split second and noticed that her stance may have **looked **like she was going to drop it, but a slight shift in her feet meant something else.

An even bigger boulder came at startling speeds from behind him. He knew that something was coming, but he didn't know what. He turned toward it and kicked through it. That was going to hurt later. But now his attention turned to the boulder above him. Once he punched through the other one, Toph dropped this one. Aang dropped to one knee, put his head down, and waited.

Katara looked like she was about to piss her pants. "Aang! What the hell are you doing?!"

Aang just sat there. He didn't even acknowledge her. It took the boulder ten seconds to drop. When it was only a foot above him, Aang braced himself. As it started to touch the top of his head, he threw his arms out and grabbed it. He stood carefully, holding a three-ton boulder on his shoulders. His knees wobbled and he almost fell. He thought he heard Katara whipser **_Aang, be careful. _**At that, a fire burned in his eyes. With all his strength, he lifted the boulder above his head with earthbending and threw it toward Toph. His shoulders ached like hell. He thought for a moment that he was going to pass out. He looked over at Katara and saw the thrilled look in her eyes.

He saw the huge rock as it flew toward Toph. The entire move took her by complete surprise. She jumped up and came crashing toward the rock with her head and smashed through it. Aang groaned not only from the pain all over his body, but also from the fact that this fight was far from over.

Toph kicked the ground and it sended the earth rolling toward Aang at high speeds. He was focusing his attention on evading it. He didn't notice Toph throwing a series of small rocks, seven at a time, toward his face. He looked up after hearing something cutting through the air. As he looked up, about fourteen small rocks coming at speeds unknown to man crashed into his face. He flew back a good twenty feet and smacked into a wall. He was sure his face was a mess from blood and dirt. It probably looked like something from a horror movie to Katara. He could feel her worry.

His hit against the wall forced rocks to come tumbling down toward him. He weakly looked up and did his best to ignore the extreme pain he was now feeling. His will was not yet defeated. He earthbended the rocks with unknown strength and sent them hurtling toward Toph in different directions. She blocked some, but Aang knew that even Toph couldn't block all of them. About seven rocks smashed into her from different angles and he made them stay there, keeping her from moving at all. He lifted her rock prison up and tightened it. He then threw it at the other wall opposite of him. She smashed into it hard and the rocks constricting her fell apart with the arrival of new rocks, burying her. She sat in there for a moment, then broke free.

Aang could see scratches on her face and she was bleeding a little. Not nearly as much as Aang, though. He was losing blood by the second. Toph made the sides of the small canyon they were fighting in quickly close. The first thing that came to his mind was to airbend out, but he remembered his limit to only earthbending. He let the wall close on him. He could feel his bones and muscles straining. He created a spiral of earth and drilled his way out at high speeds and landed on top of the wall. Toph was still against the wall. She looked surprised that Aang got out so quickly. She flinched and started to get up to fight, but Aang acted faster. He made the ground constrict her till she was down to her knees. She couldn't get out fast enough before Aang sent a boulder at her, hitting its target.

Toph felt her nose break. Blood gushed out. She fought free of the boulder and sent it at Aang. He was taken by surprise and the boulder hit him in the back of the head and sent him flying into the ground. Everything was blurry. He got up and, with his last ounce of strength, threw four walls of earth at her. She was unable to escape. They closed tightly around her, on the verge of crushing her. He stopped the walls before he hurt Toph anymore.

He looked at the small, tight room holding Toph, "This fight is over." He looked at Katara and smiled. Then, he blacked out.


	2. A little help from Master Iroh

Aang opened his eyes and his body seared with pain. He looked around and rubbed the back of his head. He had a huge bump on his head and he yelped with pain as he touched it. He was wearing only his pants and studied his body. There were scratches and welts all over him. Across his chest was a deep gash that was bleeding. He noticed some stitches that had torn and figured that he had reopened it in his sleep.

His hands made their was to his face and he felt an eye was swollen and he had deep scratches everywhere. He could only imagine what he must look like.

He studied camp and noticed that Katara, Iroh, and Toph were talking. Sokka wasn't anywhere in sight. Not even sleeping. He tried to stand, but his legs gave out from under him. He readied himself and stood again. He checked out his right leg. It was blue and severely swollen. If it wasn't broken, he figured it must be fractured.

He straightened himself the best he could and slowly approached the rest of the gang. They turned toward him, surprised he was even walking. He stifled a laugh when he noticed Toph was almost as injured as he. It felt good to know that he had at least inflicted nearly equal damage.

"I see you are awake." Iroh grinned. "I'll put on some tea." He walked leisurely over to the fire and prepared to make some tea.

"I'm glad to see that your wounds are beginning to heal well." Katara glanced at his chest, "Damn, I knew that those would come loose while you slept. Oh well, I'll have to patch those up now."

Aang just stared at her.

She took his hand and put him back on top of the bloody blanket he had slept on.

"You slept for two days. We were beginning to worry." She said, threading a bone needle, "Now don't move. This will hurt badly since you're awake. Just try to stay still."

"Wait, can't you just heal me with your glowing hand thingy?"

"It's possible, but this is too deep and I will just be healing the surface."

She readied the needle and stuck it lightly into his skin. Only a centimeter in, the pain was intense. She pushed it deeper and Aang made a sharp intake of breath. She poked it through the other piece of skin that was separated at least an inch away from the other piece. This was a deep and long cut. Aang didn't imagine the pain this would induce in the process. As she pulled it tight, Aang laid quietly, letting the pain engulf him. She started on the next spot and the next, and the next. Aang didn't make a sound. He just lay quietly, not knowing how much more he could bear.

Katara admired his strength. She knew that being sewn back together was a long and painful process. How could he possibly be enduring this so quietly? The cut was angled up, and she didn't notice she had only started at a shallow part of the laceration. This end was much deeper than the end she started at. This must have been a sharp rock to inflict this damage. She was still about six inches from finishing this off. She knew he would not be able to endure much more.

She just continued on slower. He noticed the difference since she had to dig deeper into his wound to get the stitches tight. A hot tear streamed down his face, but he spoke not. She noticed the tear and felt bad for him. He was so strong to be so young……But she figured she shouldn't call him young anymore since he was a teenager now.

It was that moment that she realized that he wasn't a little kid anymore. Aang was growing up. He was going to be a man soon. She had always thought of Aang as the strong little kid that never ceased to amaze her. Now he was the strong young man that never ceased to amaze her. She tightened the last of the stitches and he relaxed. She cleaned the stitches and washed the rest of his wounds.

Iroh approached with his tea. Katara helped Aang sit up and he winced in pain. She watched his muscles flex and noticed how ripped and lean he was. His muscles rippled as he struggled to keep himself up. He really _had_ gotten stronger.

Aang sipped the tea eagerly and didn't stop until he was finished. Iroh walked away to have some tea himself, then clean up. Toph left to practice earth bending. Aang and Katara just sat there, not talking. Aang moved to get up.

"You fought well yesterday. I was proud of you." Katara broke the awkward silence.

Aang could feel the heat rise in his scarred face. "Thanks Katara, but I have to prepare for our fight."

"I know. But are you well enough to? I mean, you are hardly recovering from your fight with Toph. Toph hasn't even fully recovered yet. Are you sure you want to start today?" Katara's eyes were full of concern.

"Damnit Katara, why do you have to give me those looks, you know I can't resist them." He stopped in his tracks, wow, and another really awkward comment.

She giggled even louder this time.

"I-I mean just stop with the looks, you're like some mental terrorist with them, like a mind ninja! I gotta give in—I mean, well, um…"

Katara broke into hysterical laughter, "You absolutely suck at making an awkward conversation better. But that's why I lo…like you so much…as a friend…yea, that's what I meant, yea."

Aang broke into equal laughter, her cheeks burned red, "Oh yea, I totally suck at it, don't I, Katara?"

They both laughed together. Aang stopped abruptly and gripped his chest, wincing.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking right. I shouldn't be making you laugh. You'll tear open your stitches again."

"Yea, I'm already sore from doing it twice, I am not in the mood nor am I strong enough to do it again." When with the awkward comments ever stop?

Aang turned bright red, as did Katara.

"I'm gonna go rest now." He walked away and kicked a rock at a tree. It bounced back and hit him square in the forehead. He yelped and walked away, gripping his sore head. Iroh smiled and walked over to Aang as he settled in the woods.

"Master Iroh, what's wrong with me? Everything that comes out of my mouth sounds so stupid." Aang complained.

"Aang, it's obvious you have feelings for her. Just let her know it."

"But to her I'm just a kid. It's useless."

"I will not reveal your feelings to her because that is something you must decide to do. What I can tell _you _is that sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission." At that, Iroh got up and walked back into camp. Aang saw him talk to Katara and pointed toward the woods where Aang was sitting. _That traitor! He said he wouldn't tell her anything! I'll show him…_Aang thought how he could get Iroh back, but realized that fighting his fire bending master would probably get him killed.

Aang's blood was still boiling as he allowed his hands to become engulfed in fire. He was startled when a soft, familiar hand touched his shoulder. He extinguished his fires with a grunt and turned to Katara.

"What did Iroh tell you?" He asked, pure hatred in his voice.

"He just told me that you were in pain, so I should go see you. Why do you sound so angry?"

Aang was startled, yet relieved. "No reason, I've just been…thinking."

"About what?" Katara's eyes shone with curiosity.

Aang took a deep breath, and while his courage still burned, "Katara I love you, and I would go to the ends of the earth for you. No matter how injured I am or what stands in my way, I will never let anyone or anything hurt you."

**A/N: **Sorry for the cliffy guys, but heck, what keeps you reading? I will post the next chapter in a few days or so.


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